


The Space Between Today And Tomorrow

by ReforgedMind (Churbooseanon)



Category: Marvel (Comics), Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: M/M, Magic and Time Travel Going Hand in Hand, Maximoff Family Drama, Post YA 2, Rating May Change, Recurring mentions of giant pigeons with fire breath, Relationship Drama at times, Secondary Mutation Manifesting, Tags May Change, Time Travel, Vision actually in a room with his sons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-05-16 00:56:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19307371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Churbooseanon/pseuds/ReforgedMind
Summary: Tommy Shepherd, known along the hero community as ‘Speed,’ had a bit of a problem. Namely that ten minutes ago it had been Saturday night, and now it was Monday afternoon and his phone had a slew of unanswered texts and a few voicemails and frankly, he didn’t know what to do with that.David Alleyne, known as Prodigy, has a problem all his own. His boyfriend has been missing for a whole weekend and no means of magic, tech, or prayer seems to be getting him closer to answers. The pain of loss at it happening to him again is driving him to edge once more.Life only gets more complicated from there, with Tommy finding his own words to be landmines, finding a new threat on the horizon, and there is a cloaked stranger who keeps appearing. Nor is he the only one experiencing strange things, with David finding himself moving backwards in ways he never would have thought possible, but it gives him new hope.Together they might manage to build their own sort of future, one where their powers can change things for the better for more than just themselves.





	1. Welcome to Today

**Author's Note:**

> So a new longer piece. This one is going to draw from a larger spread of the Marvel Comics universe and ignore some stupid retcons. For instance? Wanda & Pietro are definitely Magneto’s kids. On the other hand, the most recent War of the Realms stuff is a no. I will mention a few things later that I am sorta working with and sorta twisting for my own purposes when it comes up. 
> 
> The point is _another_ exploration of Tommy being more than a speedster, to put him on par with his twin. POVs will be switching back and forth between Tommy and David throughout this, and I will get the pleasure of seeing some interactions between characters that the comics don’t really do much. 
> 
> Hope this pleases, comments are made of love and help motivate writing. Please forgive typos, working without a beta and typing in my limited spare time so can’t always catch things.

Tommy Shepherd, known along the hero community as ‘Speed,’ had a bit of a problem. Namely that it was Monday and he had stood his boyfriend David up on last night’s dinner date to celebrate two years together. This problem was of course bad, Tommy had worked hard to make sure nothing short of the end of the world or some reasonable heroics would get in the way of major events in his personal life. It has been so easy, before he had gotten really involved, to justify the space he had thought he needed. Truth was he’d been trying to protect himself from a lot of things, something that had taken him years and a lot of conversations to realize. 

Of course all of those thoughts, he realized, were sort of useless right now. Introspection wasn’t exactly going to change what was going on here. And what was going on was the fact that ten minutes ago it had been Saturday night, and now it was Monday afternoon and his phone had a slew of unanswered texts and a few voicemails and frankly, he didn’t know what to do with that. There was an overwhelming urge to just run, flee, avoid the problem he had somehow fallen into head first with no warning. There was no good way to fix all he was going through, right? How did you explain a missing day and a half? Pretty sure there were no cosmic entities this time. Unless Billy had gotten frustrated at him briefly and he just didn’t remember. 

Thing was, he couldn’t very well get answers where he was. Whatever had brought him to this moment in time had brought him back to where he had been that night. Which was standing outside of a jewelry store. His only relief, of course, was that the doors were open which hadn’t been he case what had been, by Tommy’s perception, only ten minutes ago. He’d gotten there fifteen or so minutes after closing and Tommy had been so mad, because he’d already been told that they weren’t open on Sundays. Showing up late had meant he had to wait until Monday, and now here he was, on fucking Monday. 

Fat lot of help it was. Still, might stop in for what he had come for, now that he was here, right? Except, after missing last night, he might well no longer need it. Not like he knew just how far away this whole mess would push David from him. Fuck, if only that stupid person hadn’t don’t their stupid whatever it was that had turned normal pigeons into giant, somehow fire breathing, monstrosities then maybe none of this would have happened. 

No point about all of that right now, right? Okay there were like a hundred thousand reasons but frankly, Tommy was less a thinker and more a doer. A man of action, and the action right now had him pushing into the jewelry store, stuffing his phone into his pocket. He could do prioritizing on contacting his team later, right? He had time. Maybe. If whatever had happened didn’t happen again. Or if he could actually be patient enough to not look at his phone for a while. 

“Good afternoon, Mister Shepherd!” the bright, cheery voice of the saleswoman came shortly after the cheerful chime of the door announcing his entrance. As ever she was clad in one of those sharp looking gray blouses, a navy blue pen at skirt clinging to her hips like she might have been seen into the damn thing. Not that he not that he spent much time admiring things like that these days. No, this one he noticed it because, no matter how hard he tried, Tommy couldn’t calm the processing speed of his brain. That hadn’t been an issue since his powers first started to manifest. Throw in his nerves and his fast he perceived things and it was just another in a long list of details that he couldn’t help but absorb. Right up there with a description of every last piece of jewelry in the first three glass cases, and a serious consideration at how amazing those tanzanite and diamond three-tier tear drop earrings would look on Kate, showing off her already astoundingly long neck in a sinfully wonderful way. 

Too many details, and it was giving him almost as much of a headache as the push of people outside had, or all the connotations of it  _ suddenly being Monday  _ was. Fuck, he needed a fucking quiet, nondescript room right now. They were almost as good at getting his brain to slow down as a single, sweet kiss from David. 

Right, David, and the reason he was here. The sale clerk, Alyssa, was still there, smiling patiently at him. Actually, no. When Tommy’s eyes cast back over his shoulder and outside he really got what was going on. She wasn’t patient, his brain had just kicked his body up into the higher levels of his super speed. Huh. That had  _ definitely _ not happened outside of deliberate desire and a few very choice moments since before he had joined the Young Avengers. Something was… well, lacking a better word, he was going to go with ‘wrong’. Not like his powers to run away with him. Oh, that was a good one, had to save that pun for a nice encounter with Billy, his brother would groan over the whole joke. 

As it was Tommy closes his eyes for a moment, taking a slow series of breaths. Though e hated to even think of the place and his time there, but his time in custody, being experimented on, had some uses. Meant he had mastered his powers a lot faster than most mutants his age. Or the age he had been at least. Not like they had changed in the meantime. Mostly right now it meant that they had taught him how to wrestle his powers back into control to interact on a level possible for the overwhelmingly vast majority of the world. Now he employed one of those methods, slowly his breathing with each new breath, all of his attention on said breathing. Slowly, for him at least, his powers slid from him like water dripping over a scotch-guarded surface, and when he opened his eyes Alyssa’s smile was finally going from the overly bright welcoming one to a less intense one. Worked for him. 

“Here for your pickup? We missed you Saturday, but I do have it all ready to go now. Would you like me to fetch it?” 

“Yeah, Alyssa,” Tommy said as he came over, fists shoved into the pockets of his jeans to keep him from leaning over the glass display case. They didn’t like that here. “Could you? Been looking forward to it all weekend.”

Not entirely a lie. Just not entirely the truth either really. More than enough truth for the woman, though. She moved with a nod to a back room with a brief gesture to one of her coworkers in the store. Moving at normal human speeds as she would be obligated to do being only human, meant this might take a while for Tommy. Which was probably a bad thing given how on the fritz his head was right now. Okay, he was going to go crazy if he didn’t do something. Had to be something his mind could work over, and all he had was his phone. So back out that came. 

There was a bundle of messages waiting for him, time stamped for a variety of sprees of texts. More than a few started as checking in, making sure Tommy was okay given he’d farted off immediately once Kate had said they were down to final touch-up. Wasn’t like he wanted to show up here in his Speed gear, and changing had taken no time at all. Teddy’s and America’s messages had trailed off after that. Kate’s were invested just a bit longer than that, probably out of annoyance over his lack of response. Mostly she had been asking if he’s made it to the shop in time given she had done a bit of work to help him pick out what to get. Sometimes he wondered if Kate was even more invested in his personal life than he was. But in a less strange way than Billy. 

Billy’s messages were a touch more anxious, Tommy could tell by the way they grew more common as time progressed. The ones at the end were particularly worrying as they more than implied that Billy had sought him magically after a while, to no avail. 

David’s…

Well, Tommy just didn’t open that conversation. Bad enough that the others would register their messages as read now, giving people news that he was back, or at least on his phone again. That might garner some harassment when they noticed it—well, America probably wouldn’t care provided no one had bugged her—especially since Billy could show up at literally any second. But David? Well, Tommy wanted something better than ‘I don’t know’ when he started that conversation. Which of course didn’t even mention how important it would be to have that conversation in person. Texting just wouldn’t cover the whole mess that was going on. So the question was how he was going to approach his maybe-still-boyfriend and be believed when explaining that he had not run off.

What he needed, Tommy realized in the nearly interminable period of time he had to wait for Alyssa’s return, was someone to talk this out with. Someone to help him get a handle on the problem, or perhaps to the start of it if nothing else. Billy was right out because for all that his twin was powerful, he wasn’t exactly a genuine or even bearable when he was worried over something. David was the smartest person Tommy knew but that would t work either. Maybe Uncle Pete then? For all that Tommy knew this was some weird sort of side effect of having their powers. Was it possible to black out like that? But no, that wouldn’t work either, because Pietro would absolutely tell Wanda, and Wanda would tell Billy, and Billy would not only tell David, but he would also  _ show up  _ to harass him. No, it didn’t work at all. What he needed was a combination of intelligence and distance from other people. Someone who would listen before they talked and who would respect the privacy he needed at the same time. 

Where would he find someone like…

His fingers, which has been scrolling idly through his contact list, came to an abrupt stop at the perfect choice. Apparently his subconscious was running away with him, but for once he really appreciated where it had opted to turn. Chances were that there was no better choice than David, and with him off the table this was absolutely the best he was going to manage. Granted he had never contacted the person before so he didn’t know if he’d get a response. At the same time, he’d never put the number into his own phone. Instead he’d just awoken to it there one day, and surely that alone was a sign. 

There was still time before Alyssa came back, so Tommy did the only logical thing he could. He typed out a message. 

_ hey need to talk _ __  
_ you free? _ __  
_ can we meet somewhere w low sensory shit? _ __  
_ sorta have a power overload or something going on _ _  
_ __ oh tell no one about it k?

There wasn’t even time for Tommy to get the phone back into his pocket before the return message came in. Made sense, all things considered. Not like the guy was ever away from his phone. 

_ Of course that would be possible. I presume you are currently in New York City, or can reach there easily. There is a suitable location there which would serve us. Does thirty minutes work for you, and shall I bring pizza? _

Damn good plan actually. In a matter of seconds—as fast as modern Starkphones could manage unfortunately—they had swapped address for Tommy’s order, and Tommy had breathed a sigh of relief. At least he had managed to wrap up one thing easily enough. Well, as wrapped up as a promise of pizza and a quiet room could manage. Now all he needed was…

Alyssa’s timing could not have been more perfect had she been Domino. All he had to do was think of her and he was graced with her return, a small bag in her hands. Tommy’s breath caught in his throat as she moved to him, his heart beating stutter-step as his hands shook just a bit under the vibratory forces of his body, his powers demanding front and center attention. What they were vying against, though, had them beat out by a long shot. Alyssa’s smile was warm and welcoming as she made it to the counter and slipped the small velvet box from the bag and handed it over to him. 

“One last check to make sure it’s to your specifications? I am so sorry about the typo on the last pass. Hopefully it had caused you no inconvenience.”

“No, it’s fine,” Tommy lied. The inconvenience could be laid strictly at the feet of the fire-breathing mega-pigeons. Besides, the fact that he hadn’t figured the issue out far enough in advance had been on him anyway. 

He took the offered box, allowed himself a deep breath before opening the box. Like every other time he opened the box he was left awed, his fingers itching to reach out to touch the no doubt cool tungsten alloy of the ring. Thing was, this time he sorta was encouraged to do it, had to do it really. His fingers still hesitated just before pulling the band out. It was glorious, of course it was because David deserved the flawless creation of gold and black metal, wonderfully strong and lines perfectly suited his boyfriend. The moment he had seen the thing he had known it was the right choice. All he had needed was the right message engraved in it, which apparently was a serious problem. 

So of course they had managed to mess the engravement up in the firsts pass, and that meant doing the whole process again. All of it was supposed to get done under the wire, leaving him just enough time to throw together the last little details of his plan. Instead the universe…

Instead the universe. No need to add details beyond that. 

He turned the metal between his fingers until he saw the etching on the metal. Somehow it was jarring to see his words staring up at him, and his fingers glided over them.  _ Home is at your side. _ No truer words were spoken, even if it took a whole hell of a lot more of them to accurately explain them. This fit, though, and it felt right. Home, someone had once said, was where the heart was. David was where his heart always went. If only there was a way he could have given this to David when he was supposed to have done it. 

If only. He hated those two words more than anything else right now. Hated how much weight he had to put on them and how far he could go with them. They came with so many useless sentiments. If only things were still good. If only he could make things okay with him and his boyfriend. If only he could figure out what had happened. And if only David would still say yes after what had happened. 

With a sigh Tommy resettled the ring into the box and shut it. Couldn’t stand to look at it right now, because of the fact that it might not even come up now. 

“Perfect,” he assured Alyssa. “I’m sure he’ll love it. And if he doesn’t after all the time I spent agonizing…”

“I already know he will say yes. You’re a wonderful man. But yes, you do know our return policy,” she chuckled. “I still think a man would be crazy to turn you down, Mister Shepherd. Good luck.”

Luck had nothing to do with any of this. Still he smiled because Alyssa was nice and nothing going wrong with his life was her fault. So he took the box, closed it, and stuffed it into his pocket. What might be beyond his reach. Didn’t mean he wasn’t going to hold on to it, just in case. 

“Thanks, Alyssa. See you around.”

With that he lets his mind, let’s his body speed up. Time to meet up with the genius of the moment.

* * *

 

The address he was given wouldn’t be something he normally looked twice at, mostly because it looked like any other apartment building in this part of the city. Had anyone else on his contact list sent him be address he might have wondered if they had typed the thing wrong, but not him. This was the right place and Tommy bounded up the steps to the door two at a time, his eyes already parsing through the labels in various intercom buzzers. Apparently my the one he wanted was labelled as ‘Vincenzo Bianchi’. Wouldn’t have chosen it himself, but who was he to judge cover names he didn’t have to have for himself? So Tommy jabbed a finger against the bottom, waiting for some auditory feedback to tell him he could come up. Instead he heard and felt the familiar low buzz that came with certain types of computers. Namely from…

“Fingerprint confirmed. Welcome, Thomas Shepherd. You are expected.”

Biometric scanners if all sorts. Tommy couldn’t help but scoff at the synthesized voice. Thomas, he really hated that name, mostly because it was the only thing his ‘parents’ had ever referred to him by. Part of him wondered if they had insisted on it to his teachers as well, because ‘Tommy’ hadn’t been used around him until he had this one substitute teacher in third grade who asked him if he would prefer to be called Tommy. It was the first time someone had ever asked him what he wanted, and taught him that it wasn’t wrong to want things. Ever since then he had insisted on being Tommy to everyone but his parents. Clearly Tommy had to talk to this asshole about that name choice. 

Still, the lock buzzed open and Tommy was through the door in a flash. The elevator was an option when he entered, but immediately discarded because it was slow. So Tommy darted for the stairs and was up them in no time at all. Down the hall and to the proper door and as his fingers closed around the knob he heard another click, another lock thrown open. Damn, if he’s known how easily he could get close if he had just asked, how welcomed he’d be, he might have reached out to the guy a few years ago, when the number had first shown up. With a sigh he headed in, closing the door behind him. 

“Hey, you here yet?” he called out, moving through the apartment. 

It wasn’t like the places his friends kept. There wasn’t exactly much in he place. The hum in the air told him there was a lot of electronics around him, all out of sight. There was little to no real decorations to the place. In fact, it was only when he got to the living room that there was any sign jd who this place belonged to. Tommy strolled past a bookshelf and paused as he considered the picture frames there. Billy and Teddy sat together in a park in one, smiling at each other with that pretty squishy sort of look they gave each other that made onlookers suffer from tooth rot. Well, it made Tommy feel sick at least. On another shelf was an older picture of Viv and Vin Vision, standing together on a bridge in one of those cliche family trip pictures like Tommy used to see around the Kaplan’s.

The third one got him to flat out freeze. Here was one he was very familiar with, given it was the background of his phone right now. A picture of him and David together with David in his cap and gown from his college graduation a few months back. Tommy was stretching up, in a suit and tie he had intended to wear again to the restaurant last night, his lips pressed against David’s cheek as he took the selfie, his lover’s face beaming. 

Tommy reached out for the framed picture, not sure how to take its presence there, only to be cut off by someone clearing their throat. 

“Do you really need to do that? I mean, no vocal cords,” Tommy asked, turning his attention to the synthezoid now in the room. 

“No, I have no specific need to perform such an action. However, I have found that some simulated noises serves such linguistic purposes in a conversation. In this case, to draw your attention to my presence. I have brought the offered pizza. I took some liberties and requested a variety of vegetables.”

“Geez, David doesn’t even nag me over eating healthy like that. Serious passive aggressive there, maybe that’s where Billy gets it,” Tommy answered. He did steal the pizza box and carry it to the coffee table, flopping down on the couch as he did so. Why Vision needed a couch and coffee table was its own mystery, but not one he cared enough to poke at right now. There were too many questions he already had to ask, so that one was hardly high enough on the list to be important. Still, he flipped the box open and pulled a slice out todosn even as Vision floated over to a nearby chair and settled down in it. 

“I do not believe that would be an accurate summation. It would be more correct to say it comes from either Rebecca or Jeff Kaplan. But I will accept it as something like a compliment,” Vision offered as he settled into the chair. 

“Not meant as one.”

“Of this I am aware. Please, help yourself to as much as you desire. I can order more as well, if you find you require it. You have not eaten in days.”

Tommy froze at that comment, his eyes flashing immediately to the synthezoid who was, and also really wasn’t, his father. Truth was he hadn’t interacted with Vision in person very often, well not  _ this  _ Vision at least, and he was terrible at reading what expressions the man chose to let through. In a way he misses the Young Avengers’ Vision, because e had been more expressive, more drawn to connecting with people, more… a lot of things. Plus you could read his face, which Tommy really needed right now. 

“I eat as much as I need,” he returned, trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice. 

“Be that as it may, I was made aware of your disappearance within hours. Upon discovering that you could still not be contacted the next morning, your prospective fiancé reached out to William for assistance, out of concern. William was unable to locate you through his sorcery, he sought Wanda’s assistance, and she in turn advised me of your situation as I do possess a vested interest in your life. While they attempted to locate you by magical means, Viv and I combined our attention to track you by a more sensibly technological manner. David, meanwhile, called upon other resources such as telepaths using Cerebro to seek you out. 

“All, unfortunately, agreed upon the fact that you had gone missing without a trace not long after your team’s encounter ended. At this time both your half-sister and myself are aware of your return due to alerts we set to trigger should your phone return to operational parameters. There is also a chance that David might be aware, given his computer skills are more than sufficient to track and trace such details. Your partner is quite talented and level-headed in a crisis.”

Somewhere along the line, Vision had lost him. In fact, Tommy could absolutely pinpoint pinpoint the moment when it happened. ‘Prospective fiancé’ has stopped him with his second slice of pizza halfway to his mouth. Either Vision hadn’t noticed or hadn’t cared, which of course didn’t matter because Tommy’s brain was hard wired to retain all that information anyway. Another mental pass through the whole spiel and Tommy was still aghast—was that the right word, he didn’t even know—because the last time he had gone missing it had been only David after him for a time. Here he was, gone for less than two days, and a large part of his ‘immediate’ family had been involved in trying to hunt him down. Part of him wondered if Viv was passing his return around now, if Vision had informed Wanda and she had passed it down the chain, and if David really had noticed he was back. No new texts yet, so there was at least some degree of restraint. Didn’t mean he quite knew what to do with how his lack of messages might look to David. 

“Thomas!”

There was concern in Vision voice, something Tommy could barely hear over the pounding of his heart in his ears. Couldn’t hear it over the ragged breathing that tore through his lungs. His whole body was shaking, the table and couch rattling below him, the room almost fuzzy in his gaze. Panic attack, some rational part of his brain informed him. Granted, Tommy was terrible at listening to that voice, so a lot of fucking help that was. 

What did help was the hand that settled firmly onto his shoulder, the face close to his, and the absolute look of concern on Vision’s face. There weren’t many people alive who could do much of anything when Tommy got into a high-speed panick attack, even David could only sit patiently with him, his very presence a comfort. Vision, though, tilted his head fast enough for it to not take forever in Tommy’s eyes. 

“Thomas,” Vision said as he moved to sit beside Tommy in the couch, “you are accelerating at a worrisome rate I believe you are panicking. Focus on breathing right now. Do not speak. Your heart rate is high compared to your normal. Are you focused on my voice?”

Tommy nodded. With how fast his brain was running the words were slurred slow, which was a pain, but it was something. Something he could cling to, something he could pace himself alongside. 

“Listen to my voice. Match your breathing to it until such time as my voice sounds normal. We can then scale down the speed again from there.”

Actually, that was a good plan. Good enough for him to nod and focus on Vision’s next words. Not the content of them, frankly he didn’t understand the context beyond the fact that Vision was clearly talking about hacking. Tommy listened, not really paying attention, signaling for a slower pace whenever he could hear Vision perfectly clearly. Slower and slower, further and further down the spiral of speed until finally his sorta-kinda father offered a very brief nod. Back to a more human frame of reference in terms of processing speed. Which meant it was time for his question. 

“Prospective fiancé?” he asked, unable to keep the shaking from his voice. Slower time frame didn’t mean he was fully okay. 

“The last, and consequentially first, place your Stark phone pinged as a location was outside of a jewelry store. Others merely took this in stride. I checked deeper into their records and found that you were purchasing an engagement ring, with some measure of assistance from miss Kate Bishop. Given the ring was still in possession of the jeweler after you disappeared and Sunday was your anniversary, I felt it safe to presume you had intentions on the course the night was due to take. Do not worry, I buried purchase records deeper into their files, I am certain that were your paramour to have attempted to connect you with the location, he would not have discovered the plan.”

That was… well it was startlingly supportive for the man never being actively in his life before this. Didn’t mean he was entirely prepared for what it would mean for him. Which in this case was a momentary look before he was pulled into the synthezoid’s arms. There was just enough time for him see it coming, consider, and ultimately accept. Not that he lets it go in for very long. A few seconds to feel the strength of the synthezoid against him before rushing away. Took almost no effort at all, because the millisecond he started to move, Vision’s body went intangible, clearly phasing with the intention that Tommy easily get free. Which of course was interesting, in no small part because it meant Vision anticipated the need and respected Tommy’s demand for distance. 

Just like that he was in another seat, the chair Vision had vacated, staring across the table at his not-father. Sitting and staring, all of his attention was focused like a laser on Vision. This whole thing was complicated, and this connection was even worse, especially to deal with right now. He allowed himself a deep breath as he looked away from his soul-father, finally returning to his slice of pizza. That, this none of any of this was at all what he wanted to talk about. What he needed to do was get information about how to deal with what had happened, and maybe how it had happened in the first place. Which meant he had to stop letting family ties pull at him so he could instead figure out where he was. Metaphorically. 

“So I guess I’m here because there is a lot to deal with right now. You get some of it I guess for getting dragged in. Can we just talk about that instead? Instead of all of whatever this is?” Tommy mumbles between bites of pizza. “Like, seemed from texts that Billy couldn’t find me with magic. And you couldn’t either. Not with magic. With your stuff.”

“Perhaps you could start with what you experienced, it may allow me to help pinpoint what had passed. From there we can see if we can extrapolate an answer, or if we will need to determine if there at those in another field of study who may be sufficiently qualified to seek answers if I am not,” Vision suggested. “Between feeding you of course. Should I get you some water?”

“If I need water I will get it myself. I just… I wanna talk it out.”

The way Vision raised an eyebrow, another completely unnecessary and frivolous gesture from a robot, spoke volumes. Tommy was certain it did, had to or he wouldn’t have that motion in his routines, right? Thing was he didn’t quite know what those volumes were, he never had learned to speak impassive faces, but he was certain something was meant to be communicates with that look. Still, the fact that Vision didn’t bother speaking seemed to say he wasn’t going to interrupt just yet. Which meant Tommy was going to have to figure out where to cut Vision off so he could stop. 

“They messed up the engraving in the ring. It said ‘Home is Inside’. I don’t really know how they managed that, or how I didn’t notice for a full month. Guess I must have noticed, yanno, super human perception and all that. Anyway if Billy got you involved, even by accident, you know about what we were called in for, right?”

The question probably didn’t need asked, but frankly, Tommy wasn’t used to people being quiet while he told stories. Even David moved or nodded or asked clarifying questions by now. It kept Tommy on track. Somehow the intense expression on Vision’s face was enough to keep him in track. Still, he hated how quiet and still Vision was being. Had he sped up too much again?

“Something about oversized, fire-breathing fowl, I believe. Your team’s performance was passable but…”

“Oh hell, don’t you dare give us a grade or performance review,” Tommy snapped, gesturing at Vision with his slice of pizza. “I’m not here for parenting. I’m here because I need that computer brain of…”

There was no chance to finish that sentence because of a knock at the apartment’s door. Actually, that was super inaccurate because, you know, speedster, he could have gotten words out between one knock and the next and Vision would probably understand all he said. What made him actually pause was the look the synthezoid shot at the door. 

“You expecting someone else?” Tommy asked as the sound of the door opening reached them. Vision must have triggered whatever electronic security had unlocked it for Tommy. 

“No. He is just more resourceful than I had expected,” Vision admitted. “And faster.”

Tommy found he didn’t need to ask who because the door opened and that was answer enough wasn’t it? In spite of earlier reservations he moves without hesitation out of his seat and to the door, dropping his half-eaten alive behind him. Before David could even blink Tommy had pulled his boyfriend into his arms and just held him close. 

“I thought I had lost you for real this time,” David whispered against Tommy’s neck. And Tommy didn’t know how to reply to that. So he just didn’t. All he did was hold David closer, like he’d lose the guy if he let go for even a second. 


	2. Yesterday and Today

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David's had the worst weekend of his life, but at least this time he has support. Unfortunately he doesn't much agree with the advice he gets. The good news is that eventually the weekend ends and there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

The worst part was the not knowing, and for David that was always the worst part of any new situation. Not, of course, that this was entirely new. The last time this had happened the search had taken months and had only been resolved because of fate or some other twisted thing like that, but he had at least known where to start. Sure it had been by setting out to seek a cosmic horror entity in the form of the Patrinot, and the start of his plan had been finding Tommy’s magical and future-god twin, but it had been  _ something _ . Now? Now all he had was all the resources and connection that he could ever need in the powered community, an in with most hero organizations in the continental US, witches and telepaths and synthezoids on his speed dial, and  _ none of it helped _ . 

At first he hadn’t thought too much when Tommy hadn’t come back directly after the issue with the mammoth fire pigeons. Sometimes Tommy was just like that after issues in the city, sometimes he just needed space to run when the energy was up, and David only really argued against it is Tommy forgot to drop him off when he was out there with the team. Last night had hadn’t been out there, instead managing team comms from the desk in the apartment they shared while also reviewing the readings for the next week of classes. Some days there just weren’t enough hours in the day to be the front line superhero support he was, a good boyfriend, online tech support for his job, and a law student, but he made it work. Did it because life asked it of him, and thanks in no small part to Tommy and some old X-Men connections. 

Today, though, David couldn’t focus, hadn’t been able to all day. A few hours late from a hero op was one thing. Twenty-four hours was something else. Hell, Tommy not being home before midnight had been enough for David to start getting anxious, and still being alone come the morning had him reaching out to anyone and everyone with the same result. Sure, he’d thought he was being paranoid at first, but when no one could tell him anything he’d turned to the big guns. There had been magic with Billy and Wanda, who had both found nothing despite their strength and who swore to try again, with Strange’s assistance, after they had some rest. He’d tried a bit more mental of an approach by reaching out to the Cuckoos, who had done a twice-over with Cerebro because they respected David’s concern. Ultimately they had confirmed that they could feel nothing of his mind on the planet, but they had reminded him of what he already knew, that speedsters were notoriously hard to pinpoint with that method, their minds too fast to easily read, even if thoughts or compulsions could be pushed into their minds with some degree of success. Even Noh-Varr had offered to put some metaphorical feelers out, his word choice and not David’s, in the interstellar communities of note as a precaution, but that always took time, even with far superior communication apparatuses, and even though no one could begin to hazard a guess as to why Tommy might have been off planet. As for the technological approach… 

David had picked up so much knowledge before he’d lost his x-gene that he’d gotten pretty good at predicting a lot of things. High on the list of things he’d never anticipated, though, was him being contacted by the twins’ soul-father. Sure, he knew a decent bit about Vision from stories and public knowledge, and he’d definitely poked around in deeper, controlled systems to learn more after he’d become involved with Tommy. Somehow he’d even managed to end up as penpals, so to speak, with Viv Vision in the process, though that had been a accidental side-effect of trying to get into contact with Nadia van Dyne. But none of that prepared him for waking up from an unintended nap to find new systems and searches running from his computers, managed by the elder of the Visions, something he’d only known because the synthezoid had left a notepad open on his screen explaining everything. Since then he’d had regular updates from Vision and Viv both, suggestions of alternate tracking algorithms offered from email and texts, and even a brief phone call from Viv to assure him that it really was okay for him to sleep, they would delay their own rest cycles so someone would always be on the search. It had been considerate, of course, even if he’d barely managed more than that cat nap, even with specific medication. Truth was, they didn’t need him and he knew it, knew that all of his skill couldn’t compare to theirs, but it was all David had left, the only approach he had, and he had to take every step he could, anything else felt like giving up. 

Twenty-four hours. What an eternity could pass in so little time. David’s eyes lifted from the weighty textbook in front of him to catch sight of the clock on his desk. Twenty-four hours, seven minutes and thirty-two seconds, he amended, since hed had last heard from Tommy. Years ago he might have assumed his boyfriend was just nervous in the face of the milestone they had been so close to crossing together. Now… Now he just glared down at the case studies in the book before him and cursed. Part of why he was even going into law was because of Tommy, and rereading this section on the movement toward fairer legal treatment of young mutants facing the first manifestations of powers? It was too much to handle. Far too much. Frustrated, David picked up the heavy book and twisted in his seat to fling it aside. 

Life had an interesting way of pacing itself out, because even as the book flew from his hands there was a tell-tale flash of blue light and a heartbeat later there was a loud protest. Of course there was, because he just had to have this thrust upon him right now. Because what David really needed was company with bad news, managing to teleport right into the path of David’s little tantrum. 

“You know, if this is the book they throw at criminals, I definitely don’t think I would have stood with Cap back when things went down if I had known,” Billy observed, his voice so dry that it made the Sahara sound pleasant by comparison. 

David twisted in his seat to regard what turned out to be his new arrivals, plural, his eyes meeting that of Billy and Teddy across the room. The former was still in what David had come to think of as his ‘semi-Demiurge’ gear, yet somehow even the stars on his arms and legs seemed duller, more sluggish in their movement, like they too were tired from the searching. Magic, David supposed, was hard to predict on a chaos mage, even when it was merely worn. Perhaps that was especially true on a chaos mage actually, because what he remembered of formal magic from Strange was far more controlled, even on a tired sorcerer. Granted sorcerers were far more likely not to have their magic randomly fire off than was true for Billy if they were bone deep tired, and David could read that level of fatigue in every line of Billy’s body. It was a weariness that he was very familiar with right now. Teddy, on the other hand, looked positively fresh and ready to go, even his faded Star Wars t-shirt and jeans seemed somehow crisp. Whether that was because he’d actually managed to get sleep or because he was shifting away all signs of fatigue to comfort Billy, well, David didn’t know or care. 

He did, though, feel a touch ashamed of his tantrum as Teddy stooped to pick up the book from the floor where it had fallen. After it had apparently struck Billy in the arm, or so David had to conclude with how Tommy’s twin was massaging a point near his shoulder. There was a light mix of irritation and understanding on Billy’s face, crinkling his brow and making him look even more like Tommy for a brief and agonizing moment. That was the same look Tommy turned on whatever project he was working on at his own desk when it wasn’t coming together quite how he wanted. The thought caused David’s eyes to slip past the pair to the other desk in the room, still cluttered with discarded resistors and chips and the other brickabrack to be expected given Tomm’s latest project of creating a new, sleeker version of David’s tech-glasses. Which of course Tommy was trying to hide, but the distinctive yellow for the lenses had been hard to miss, so they were both playing at the kind fiction that David had noticed nothing. The desk itself was a reminder of Tommy’s absence in its own way. It wasn’t like Tommy to leave pieces in a mess like that, often scooping things away into the proper boxes and drawers and onto shelves when he wasn’t working, but in a constant state of chaotic mess when he was. It told the story of how fast Tommy had left to deal with the threat to the city, and how he’d never made it back home. Even seeing the thing nearly drove an agonized sob from David. Nearly. 

Losing Tommy once had been enough, David knew. Back before they’d really known each other, back before he’d realized that invitations to coffee and noodles and even clubbing had been an overture of more than just friendship. Losing Tommy before he’d ever really had Tommy had been enough of a strain on him. Losing Tommy when he had known the how but not the why had been enough. 

Losing Tommy now was  _ too much _ . 

“Any news?” David asked, rising without prompting to accept his textbook back. The fact that Tommy wasn’t here and they hadn’t texted him was answer enough, but he had to ask anyway. Because if he didn’t, well, that was almost the same as giving up hope, right? 

Both Teddy’s and Billy’s expressions faltered at that before they turned to share a look. It said everything David needed to know. Didn’t keep him from waiting for an answer though, he’d make them say it aloud because it wouldn’t be real until they said it. As it was he returned his attention back to his desk to put the book down and glance at the nearer computer screen. Still no results from his cyber searches, or new messages from either of the Visions. Nothing at all was working and without breadcrumbs how was he supposed to follow Tommy’s trail this time?

“Nothing yet. Sort of why we’re here actually,” Teddy spoke after a pregnant sort of silence, one heavy with the realization of his own failure. 

“A negative could easily have been texted,” David answered as he returned his attention to them. On some level he knew what they were going to say, what they were going to try and do. If nothing else, Billy and Teddy were amazingly predictable. On that same level he couldn’t even blame them for it, either. That didn’t mean he wanted to stand here and listen to it. 

“David, please,” Billy spoke next, and when his hand settled on David’s shoulder, David somehow managed not to flinch away from it. Harder not to compare it to Tommy’s touch, always firmer, more possessive as well. “We’re all a bit worn out and…”

“I swear to any and every god out there Kaplan, including your future-self, that if you say we should just give up, I will find a way to destroy you.  _ After  _ finding Tommy on my own.”

There was more bite in his voice than Billy deserved, and some part of David resolved to feel guilty about that. Later. Much later. As it was, he found his gaze falling to his hands, clenched so tightly in his lap that he was certain he might cut his palms open with his nails. Which would, of course, do no one any good at all. So he bit his lip to center himself, to try and calm the rage inside of him, not to mention the fear, and he sighed. 

“Sorry, that… that isn’t what I meant to say. I just… I’m just…”

“Don’t apologize. I get it. Trust me, David. I get it. At least when Mother took Teddy I knew he was mostly okay, because he had to be if he was going to be good bait for me. I knew the how, the why, and even the where. I understand being devastated over the man you love disappearing. I couldn’t judge anything you say right now, not really. Especially given it’s Tommy on the line,” Billy answered, his voice that amazing sort of gentleness only he could manage. The whole ‘loving god’ side of the Demiurge coin that was responsible for such things as America’s Utopia, not that David had ever told Billy about that little detail. 

“It’s not that. I’m tired, and Wanda’s just short of magicked me to sleep. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be grounded forever if I don’t get some rest, and she might find a creative way to do it. But I can’t get to sleep until I know you’ve eaten and showered and gone to bed. Call it looking out for you because Tommy can’t if you really must. You have class tomorrow, right?”

Multiple lectures, all skewed toward early morning because he apparently hated himself, but it usually didn’t matter. Tommy was an early riser and David rose with him. The bed was frightfully cold without his boyfriend in it. Still, he saw no reason to confirm or deny that fact, or even to agree with Billy’s point. How could something as simple as a class matter when Tommy was still missing? Did they miss the part where he’d thrown his whole life away to seek Tommy out after knowing him for all of two days the last time? And back then they hadn’t really known each other beyond what could be gotten out over a lunch or early morning coffee run. 

Teddy must have snuck up on him, though, because even as David was considering a sharp resort, the seat he was in was spun around to face his other friend. As it was, David was forced to stare up into those crystal blue eyes, which only now allowed themselves to show the bags under Teddy’s eyes. 

“If you won’t listen to him, then look at it from my perspective, David. I can’t trust Billy to take care of himself right now, because of the state he’s in. But he’s caught up on looking out for you because his brother would want that, and you don’t seem to give a damn. So to take care of him, I have to take care of you both. This is how it’s going to work. B and I are taking your bed tonight, because I know you won’t use it with Tommy gone. You take the couch. Billy’s cooking dinner for us all, minimizing magic usage so he doesn’t pass out. In the morning, before going back to Wanda, Billy’s teleporting us both to class. Everyone understand the plan?”

It took a hell of a lot to break down Teddy’s good will, his patience, his compassion. David hadn’t realized he’d been worn to that point. Perhaps he should have. Perhaps they all were so far beyond that point that it really didn’t matter. 

“You can’t trust me?” Billy asked even as David rolled his eyes and said, “What makes you think I’m going to class?”

Not it wasn’t only Teddy staring hard at him. Apparently what he had said had shocked Billy badly, his normally soft brown eyes turned on David with a harder edge. Hard and dark and almost terrible, like pieces of tiger-eye in deep shadow. There was anger in him that hardly seemed warranted, and frankly, David didn’t know what to do with that. He would have expected Billy to stand behind him on this, demand that David take the day off of classes to help in the search for Tommy. Not that physical searching was resulting in much so far. His obligation, though, was to Tommy, and frankly it was a disgrace that he was in any better state than Tommy’s twin was. While Billy had a lot on his mind the last time this had happened, he had insisted on dropping the important fight against Mother to try and find his brother immediately. Still, no one had ever seemed to look out for Tommy like David did. That was why…

David’s fingers itched to reach toward his pocket, to feel the small box there. Over the last few days he’d about worn out the material of it, and now he had to fight the compulsion to make sure the box was still there. Worse, he had to suppress the idea that maybe it wasn’t needed anymore. 

“Like hell you’re skipping class,” Billy snapped, his eyes briefly flashing with that blue of his magic. Not as burnt out as he thought then. “Do you know how guilty Tommy would feel if this was just him getting kidnapped by some villain or goofing off somewhere and you blew your chance at your future for it?”

“Goofing off?” David demanded, all but jumping to his feet. The nausea that came with his concern had been replaced with a white hot fury in his gut, burning like it could render him to ashes without any effort at all. Could almost smell the burn of flesh in the air, an all too familiar smell that haunted his dreams and made him shudder to even consider. 

Anger, pain, pure  _ rage _ over Billy’s lack of understanding carried him forward, almost stalking toward Billy. Of course, Teddy was there immediately, standing like a wall between them. Not that it wasn’t a wall David couldn’t take down if he wanted to, even with what Teddy was. He’d only need a second of Teddy being off balance, and they both knew it. Worse was the fact that normally, when David and Billy got into it---and yes, they still got into it at times---it was the big guy and Tommy that stood between them. That knowledge and the lack that came with amplified the pain enough to have David turn his back on Billy. Turn his back in an attempt to swallow down his rage. 

What could he say? Even after all this time they still got in each other’s faces in a way that few others that were on the team or moonlighted with it ever did. Billy was an idealist who had a lot of the world handed to him on a silver platter. David was a thinker, a planner, who had seen the worst of the world and tried to prepare for it, who didn’t hold out hope that the people who had burned you once wouldn’t burn you again. Okay, so maybe that wasn’t it at all and yeah, David knew it really well. But he was angry at the world in a lot of ways and usually with their group of friends Billy was the easiest to be angry at. Mostly because Billy was due not only to be a god, but King-Consort to a Skrull-Kree empire one day, and David always hated how much Billy got and how Tommy just worked to get by. 

“Stop it, both of you,” Teddy said, his voice low and placating like it did in truly stressful situations. He was getting so good at defusing situations, he was going to be a good emperor someday, whether he wanted it or not. Frankly, give the guy a medal for even trying on this one. 

“It’s just… don’t talk about Tommy like that,” David mumbled. Too quiet for Billy to even hear, but he knew Teddy would catch the words. Because of course he would. 

There was nothing he hated more, though, than the times when Tommy’s friends, his  _ family _ , put him down like that. No matter who Tommy was when they first met him, he was a different man now. He’d grown, he’d changed. They all had. The things they went through would change anyone, sometimes for the worse. Tommy, though, Tommy had only gotten better. He deserved all the credit in the world for that, and people rarely even deigned to notice. Billy, for one, should have. 

“Billy? Kitchen. Make something to eat. And don’t burn yourself out,” Teddy directed, and Billy apparently didn’t see a reason to disobey. 

Some small, spiteful part of David wished the witch would cut himself on a knife while chopping vegetables. The feeling didn’t last long because quite soon there was Teddy’s hand on his shoulder, an anchoring presence with its weight. Not that the touch lasted either, because the hand turned David until he was in position for Teddy to wrap arms around him in a potentially backbreaking hug. 

“You’re worried, and that’s okay. So is Billy. But you know he didn’t mean it like that,” Teddy murmured, his voice literally right there in David’s ear. “B loves his brother and I know he sees how much Tommy has changed, just like you have. Not as well as you, sure, but you bought those front row tickets and apparently it was a show for one.”

In spite of himself and his foul mood, David couldn’t help the snort of amusement over that line. Teddy always knew what to say to cheer him up. Which of course made sense, given Teddy was his best friend other than Tommy. At least the best friend he could most easily reach out to, what with Josh and Sofia so hard to pin down these days. 

“He needs those terrible lines to defuse tension. No, don’t interrupt. I know it isn’t healthy, but for him it works, and right now he’s close to cracking. I promise you, Billy’s working on it, okay? But he’s as terrified as you are. There isn’t much his magic can’t do when he’s willing to trot it out fully, and now not even for the first time, it can’t help him find Tommy. Can’t even help him when he’s got his mother at his side. Ultimate reality warping powers? Yes. Ability to find his soul-bound twin? No. And it scares him like this scares all of us. Still, he isn’t wrong about class tomorrow, and you know it.”

This was where David no longer agreed, and it was enough of a point for him to push away from the comfort Teddy was offering. How could Teddy say that? How could anyone ever think that he shouldn’t be doing something more than sitting in a stuffy lecture hall taking notes and discussing past cases? How could…

“For a smart person, you’re really good at actively choosing to be dumb,” Teddy sighed, and hte look he gave David really got the disappointment across. Someday he was going to perfect that look and unify the Skrull and Kree merely by telling them in a stern tone that he had expected more out of them. And if he wasn’t an emperor, he was going to be the world’s best kindergarten teacher. 

“But Teddy, I…”

“No buts. Remind me, David, why you went into law.”

A lot of reasons. Because there needed to be people out there fighting to help mutants in courts. Because Kevin could have used a lawyer in his corner that understood what it felt like to lose everything, or nearly that, and if he’d had one from the start he might still be alive. Because someone needed to be able to sue over the abuse of kids like Tommy who had gone through too much just because their parents didn’t like how different they were or didn’t know how to handle it. Because there were people out there that didn’t know how to get across the ‘telepath made me do it’ or get good testimony out of a terrified kid who was forced to show off what others might see as a ‘disfiguring’ mutation in an attempt to scare a jury. Because the law was constantly evolving and contorting and complicated enough that even what little his powers had grabbed over it before he’d lost them didn’t cover it all and so it could be something that was uniquely his.

“To help people.” 

It was the best way to summarize it all, and the purest truth of the matter. 

“Same reason Tommy got into heroing, more or less. And I don’t think he’d want you blowing up your chance when you personally, no offense, can’t do a lot right now beyond waiting. So please, shut up and listen to me?”

The look on Teddy’s face was one of near desperation. What might happen if it got all the way there was quite the question. Instead of asking it David just nodded. 

“Fine. Call me when dinner is ready. I have to finish rereading this damn section again. Maybe it will stick. I’m sort of horrible at focusing right now.”

The request earned him a grateful smile, which was definitely something he was going to run with for right now. With that Teddy slipped out and David returned to his textbook, hateful thing that it was. Not, of course, before turning a hopeful eye toward his computer. Still nothing. 

Fuck.

* * *

 

Unsurprisingly, Teddy had been right, which David was loathe to admit come the next day. Eating had been good for him, and apparently Billy had not only been taking cooking classes but Teddy really had cracked down on the no magic for anything but acquiring ingredients, so the process had taken a reasonable amount of time. Ultimately David had gotten a good bit of review in for class, which of course had turned out to be vital given his first lecture of the day had that one instructor that picked him out as the most tired person in the room that morning. That man always delighted in masking difficult questions about the topic at hand as easy little things, a trifle anyone could answer, before springing some trap on the student. Of course it was pretty par for the course for the man to find some excuse to turn the questions on David in particular, always seeming like he wanted to catch David with him, like he wanted to prove David didn’t belong there. David never complained. If he couldn’t handle one asshole instructor who seemed to have it out for him or for African Americans or for smart kids or mutants or whatever, well, then he would never be able to handle opposing council and might as well find another field altogether. Maybe contract law. 

None of that made life any easier as he came out of his third class for the day. As intensely distracting as lectures themselves were, nothing really lingered long enough to help once the last session let out. Once more David would have to go home to his empty apartment, knowing Tommy was gone, with no one the wiser about where his lover was. No answers, no leads, nothing. Or so David assumed. While he hated that fatalistic outlook, there wasn’t much basis for hope other than pure desire. At least after today he could file a missing person’s report. Which probably would do nothing of course. The resources of local police and the feds could hardly compare to what he was already bringing to bear, and it would look bad with all of it getting back into SHIELD records more deeply than it would generally be from the Avengers doing what they could, but he had to do something. Which he meant as much in a legal sense as in a practical one. If it came to the worst outcomes…

No, he refused to think about that. Refused.

Still, hope was a distant thing, wasn’t it? He had expected that if anything at all had turned up throughout the day, Billy might have teleported directly into his classroom. Not that the witch actually would after their fight last night, but he still could have seen it happening, and would have enjoyed the look on the faces of everyone there to see David had those sorts of contacts. 

All of that put together meant he didn’t expect to see much when he turned his cellphone back on after leaving the lecture hall. Which also meant that all of that perfectly reasonable thought process resulted in him running right into the back of another student ask he looked at his phone and the alert on the screen. He’d set his computer up to filter any results right to his phone while he was more than twenty feet from it, and now it was telling him that Tommy’s phone was not only turned back on, but pinging from an apartment complex in the city. One not even all that far away.

Chances were someone had already noticed this information. Chances were this was a trap. Chances were he should just make sure that Viv or Vision himself was already addressing the new information. If not, chances were he should send Billy or Wanda. The chances of David not running off to deal with this news himself? 

_ Nil. _

People stared as he bolted through the halls, not even pausing to apologize to the student he’d plowed into. More than once there were near misses of him almost plowing people over, his eyes more on his phone as he tried to plan the best route to his first actual clue since the event itself. Cab might take a while, he ultimately decided as he skidded out of one hallway and into another, but if he could flag one down (fates willing), no reason he shouldn’t opt for it. New York cabbies just had that special sort of insanity to them that would help more than hinder him right now. 

Turned out the fickle bitches of the Fates, or Norns, or who the fuck ever wanted to work with him today, because as he hit the street there was someone just climbing out of a cab in front of the building. David jumped in without apologizing for bumping the former customer, and passed the address information on to the driver, reading it directly from his phone. Was this, he half wondered, what it was like for Tommy sometimes? What it was like to have the whole world moving too slowly around you? Definitely not on the sorts of scales that Tommy had to live with every day, but it was still bad, it felt impossible to handle. How could answers be so close to him and yet still impossibly far away? How did one live like that? How could Tommy bear to live with someone like him, who couldn’t even begin to exist at Tommy’s level?

For the whole of the cab ride David wasn’t able to do much as sit still. The wait was that hard on him. His fingers tapped at his legs, at a series of games on his phone, at the tracking software he’d hand coded and was running mostly on his computers at home. He opened some other custom apps and found that Tommy’s cellphone had come back on at the same place it had gone so suddenly offline in, a strip of road studded with a variety of small boutique shops, the sort of place that hundreds of thousands of people passed daily without any ill befalling them. Why Tommy had gone there after fighting the pyro-pigeons, David couldn’t say. Kate had strongly implied it had to do with anniversary gifts and so David hadn’t pressed too deep, trusting Tommy’s synthezoid relatives to unravel that particular thread. The program went on to tell him that a series of texts on the phone had been read, and a few messages even exchanged before the signal next pinged in the apartment complex David was heading to now. Interesting.

What gave him the most hope, hope he dared not cling too tightly to because the world had always been cruel to him, was how fast the change in location had happened. Which was to say too fast for towers in between them to get a single ping. Tommy, some other speedster, a teleporter, or a piggybacked and thus fake signal were all the reasonable options he had here. With a reasonable statistical distribution on those factors and not even a twenty-five percent chance that it was Tommy. Of course Occam’s Razor said that simpler solutions were more likely to be correct than complex ones (which didn’t always work in the lives of supers), and with evidence saying Tommy’s phone had turned back on where Tommy had disappeared then moved at Tommy speeds definitely made him think it might just be Tommy. 

_ Why hasn’t he responded to my messages then? _

A question he hoped to ask himself as the cab came to a stop. David was quick to pay and quicker to climb free of the cab, on is feet with his bag over his shoulder and racing across the street toward the building with no hesitation. There was another near miss, this time with an old lady pulling her groceries along in a small cart, and David kept going despite her cursing so he could look at the intercom by the door. 

So what did he do now? He knew the building, but not the where in it. Could try calling Tommy’s phone. Could just hit buttons at random in hopes of getting inside. Could try a lot of things. Problem with being one of the smartest people in the world was that David could easily create about twenty different plans with almost no effort. Figuring out one that would work with the desperation pounding in him with each thump of his heart was another issue. So as he thought his eyes panned slowly over the names on the callbox, processing each without really thinking, until he froze partway down. 

‘Vincenzo Bianchi.’

Huh. Why was that name so familiar to him? Was it something he’d picked up from people he’d been around over the years? No, it was more recent than that, he was certain of that much. After a moment David raised his phone and flipped through his contact list until he found the answer. And it was almost so brilliant that he had to laugh.

People who walked in superhero circles tended to come up with their own solutions to being able to have contact with others without giving up their secret identities, or perhaps their own secrets. Some used real names only if they had them. Some used code names. Some, like Tommy, used snarky nicknames. David had always preferred providing unique aliases, as much to prevent hacking from being a threat as to keep his own mind as sharp as he could manage. Vincenzo had occurred once in his listings, as the last name that he had given the listing for Vision. Bianchi was also there of course, associated with Billy for reasons David couldn’t even be bothered to remember anymore. The combination here and now was too fortuitous to be anything else but a sign.

“From now on, I’m calling you Hansel,” David grumbled as he pushed the button next to the name.

And waited. And  _ waited _ . 

“David, faster than I had expected you to be,” Vision’s voice came through the speaker at last. 

Expected. Vision had expected him to come here. Only one reason he would of course, and David’s heart leapt with hope for half a moment. Half a moment and no more because David didn’t dare allow himself anything more. Wouldn’t until he had Tommy in his arms, safe and sound. Wouldn’t until he heard that voice soft and warm with praise or sharp and quick with annoyance. Couldn’t until he couldn’t until he could smell the crisp spice of Tommy’s shampoo and feel the softness of the skin at the nape of his neck. Tommy was his hop and had been since that moment in the hallway at work when he’d been invited out to lunch, something he had only realized more than a year later had been a Tommy Shepherd version of a pickup line. 

“No games, I can’t take them right now. I came right out of class. Now let me up,” David snapped, and frankly he was shocked by the edge in his own voice, sharper than he’d given even Billy the night before. 

“I am not certain that is prudent at this time. Perhaps…”

No.  _ No _ . David could not be so close and be denied. 

“Let me up or I’m calling Billy. Which of us would you rather deal with right now? The magic user who will make waves and a scene just because drama something your son is great at that, or would you want the  _ relatively _ rational thinker?”

Relatively because David knew he wasn’t exactly a reasoning being on his normal levels right now. His heart and gut were both driving him more than his brain and while normally that was something that David would hate and regret pretty deeply, right now he would take whatever he could get when he could get it. 

At last Vision’s voice produced a sigh even as the buzzer for the door started. The synthezoid likely didn’t need to make a noise like that, but one took what they could as signs from him and moved on. David was learning that rather quickly. 

“We are on the fifth floor in apartment b.”

There was barely enough time for David to take the information in before he was moving once more. His eyes briefly found the elevator and discarded it as an idea. Too slow. The stairs would leave him sore at the pace he intended but he was willing to put that sort of strain on his body without a question. He took them two at a time, running all the way to the fifth floor and to the door in question. 

At last David allowed himself a moment to breathe, to try and calm the burning in his lungs and the racing of bodily functions that only came with too much adrenaline. Too bad what he needed right now to was to be calm and composed. Oh well, no real way to flush the chemical from his body and he wasn’t going to wait for it to pass naturally. Instead he took a single slow, deep breath and knocked twice. 

There was a whole slew of things that David might have expected to have happen right then. Vision could have lied. Or a trap could have sprung. The door explode maybe. Tommy phase right through it and take off past him to race away. Tommy phase through it and pull David immediately into his arms. A hundred thousand possibilities that his brain provided in too little time, each one a niggling little worry, save for the few that provided relief. None of them included the soft click that spoke of a door unlocking. David didn’t bother to wait for it to open on its own either. If Vision was there he could phase through the door if David was too quick opening it inward. If Tommy, well, there was no way he was fast enough to hurt Tommy.

Not physically at least. But issues with the weight in his pocket were for another time altogether. For when Tommy hadn’t gone missing.

David took the option offered him and closed his his hand around the knob. A twist and push and the door was open He even made it two steps in before there was an all too familiar rush of wind as super-strong arms wrapped around him, as the strong planes of a familiar chest pressed against him, as a shock of white hair pushed against his shoulder. 

The moment could have been a second or an eternity and David didn’t even know if it mattered which it was, for how much relief it gave him. It was all there for him, like he’d just been thinking of, all the little assurances of his lover being with him. The spicy-crisp smell of Tommy’s shampoo mixed with the stranger and unexpected scent of tomatoes and the thick grease of pizza met his nose. Immediately David’s arms came up to curl around his boyfriend’s back, fingers meeting the same slick material of a soft cream shirt that he’d bought Tommy for Christmas and which was missing from their closet. David lowered his head to press his lips to Tommy’s neck, the scents more powerful here, and damn if his skin didn’t still feel whisper soft against his lips. How Tommy managed that between his costume and more casual running where wind might chafe his skin David had never figured out, maybe some secret supply of skin care products that Tommy managed to hide in the space between walls in their apartment. 

“I thought I’d lost you,” he whispered against that same soft skin. If he kept his voice low he rationed, maybe it wouldn’t break under the strain of what needed said. Maybe the words wouldn’t weigh too heavy on Tommy’s shoulders. 

He considered saying a few other things too. An admonishment not to scare him like that again because there were enough other ways to do it. Considered letting relieved tears fall to relieve the sting in his eyes. Even considered a slew of questions. All of it seemed to pointless now that Tommy was back in his arms where he belonged. 

The ones he’d chosen seemed to have been enough, though, because Tommy’s grip tightened. It was almost enough to make breathing a serious difficulty, but Tommy always knew that exact line to tread with David. Not that he would have complained even if Tommy had pushed just a bit harder, because all was right in the world right now. Tommy Shepherd, his love and his world and all that he kept living for was back home in his arms. 

“Perhaps the best thing for all parties at this time would be for you two to come in and enjoy some pizza. And a discussion regarding what had led us all here today. No doubt we will have a great deal to consider and little time to achieve it in before others begin to notice and impede.”

At last David lifted his head from the crook of Tommy’s beck and shoulder to look up at Vision. And by look at clearly he meant narrowing his eyes to glare at the synthezoid. Were it not for Tommy being literally and unintentionally holding him back, David would have crossed to Vision to strike him.

“You told me that you would let me know when he was back if you found him first. Fuck, I can see why the twins have nothing to do with you, you self-centered-”

“David, don’t,” Tommy cut in, his voice muffled by the weight of David’s shirt. He hadn’t bothered to lift his head yet, and now his fingers were curling tightly into the material of David’s shirt, pulling at it just a bit too much. “I asked him not to tell anyone.”

“Tommy?”

“Please, this will be more comfortable for all of us if we speak inside,” Vision insisted, voice level and bland. Asshole. 

Again David opened his mouth to protest, only to find himself suddenly on a couch, a familiar sick curl in his stomach and Tommy’s head resting against his other shoulder now. Seemed like Tommy had made a decision about how they were going to handle this situation. Let no one ever say that Tommy didn’t know how to break up the flow of an argument. Most people were left confused and trying to reorient themselves just long enough to lost the steam on being mad. David himself had been on the receiving side of it a few times and knew well that it was hard to stay mad at someone when you were suddenly in another room or building or state, forced to consider the change in your surroundings because your brain just never was ready for how Tommy worked. In this specific moment he even got to consider the slice of pizza that Tommy was chewing on. 

“Are you eating onions on your pizza? When did that happen?”

A stupid and ultimately unimportant detail. Yet it was the one that stuck with David the most right now, because Tommy  _ hated  _ onions on pizza. In fact, he was pretty much against all non-mushroom vegetables on his pizzas, which David supposed made sense. Mushrooms weren’t vegetables after all, and Tommy really grew on you like them under the right circumstances. 

“Yep,” Tommy agreed, and took a big bite out of the slice. “It’s absolutely terrible. Wanna slice?”

“Is there an issue to be had with my selection of toppings?” Vision asked as he reentered the room, from the kitchen rather than the direction of the door, rather than the direction of the door. He was even carrying plates and two pops.

“Tommy hates veggies on pizza. I’m shocked that he’s eating it without a complicated purification ritual or something.”

“Dude, when the first thing your dad ever buys you is pizza, you don’t question the extra toppings he shills out for you while ignoring the strict order you gave him,” Tommy answered.

Dad. Huh, David didn’t think he’d ever heard Tommy use that term for Vision before, not and really mean it. For a half a second his eyes darted to Vision, to see if the man would react, but there was nothing to be read on that face. Oh well, if Tommy was going to say it, then something really interesting had happened here, he just didn’t know what, and didn’t intend to pry. Yet. And it really was a reasonable way to look at the situation. 

Even if it didn’t answer anything important. At all. 

“Perhaps, Thomas, you could continue your story? As to where you were? Start after the incident with the enormous flaming columbidae was handled perhaps?” Okay, David had to give the guy credit for the scientific name for pigeons. He opened his mouth to comment but Vision’s hand came up. “And yes, Mister Alleyne, I see you about to cut in. I have advised Tommy of our search efforts. He told me…”

“I can tell it myself,” Tommy insisted, grabbing one of the pops when Vision put them down on the table. “Just… it’s weird, okay? Because thing is, David, for me it hasn’t even been an hour, really. I’m missing time. Again. Yay?”

David was left staring. Not yay, very not yay. The last time… He didn’t even want to think of the last time. If this was anything like then, they had some serious problems. 

“Tell us,” he said softly, his hand settling gently onto Tommy’s thigh. “We’ll figure it out. Together.”


	3. Trying to Find Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy is a bit overwhelmed by all the talking going on around him and weird things keep happening. David, on the other hand, comes to some conclusions with Vision's help and doesn't like where it gets them. Metaphorically or literally actually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still working on this. Still slow work on it because there is a lot of continuity stuff that matters, as you'll definitely be able to understand very, very soon. But hey, affectionate Tommy and David is nice, right?

Over the years Tommy had seen more than his fair share of concerned looks. In the early days they had come from Mary and Frank, though more the former than the latter. Even then Mary mainly only offered them when bad reports were sent home with him from school, or sometimes when he was misbehaving in a store. Those concerned looks mostly had to do with how his actions affected people’s perception of her, though, and they didn’t tend to last very long at all. The scientists at ‘juvie’ had also trotted out concerned looks from time to tim, but that had more to do with when he wasn’t performing up to their desires, or when he managed to do something that caught them off guard. Okay, there had been one time when he’d broken his wrist in the middle of something, but he had been pretty sure the concern had been because he wouldn’t be useful for a while. Ultimately their concerns were for the success of whatever they wanted him to be.

Then there were the people who actually almost cared. From day one the Young Avengers had overflowed with such expressions. They got concerned over opinions they or others had, there was Billy’s frequent concern over Teddy and vice versa, Eli’s concerns over having fucked up yet again. The few times those looks had been reserved for him it had tended to slant toward things he  _ might _ do, rather than anything he had specifically done. Would he flip out and ruin a mission because he saw something that made him think about how people tried to turn him into a weapon? Would he go too far and hurt someone who well and truly deserved it? Sometimes their concern was for the world, or for how the Avengers viewed him, or of other people, far more important to the team than Tommy ever had been. 

In all of his life, all of his problems and experiences and conversations, he could easily narrow down all of the people who, when they looked at him with concern, were actually concerned  _ for  _ him, rather than  _ at  _ him. There was Wanda, whenever she found out about some ill he suffered, or when he’d spoken in her defense after they had found her. There were Jeff and Rebecca Kaplan, but their looks came with rules and pity so Tommy couldn’t stand those looks at all.  _ Once  _ he’d gotten the look from Molly when, after a fight with David in the early days, he had raced off to spend a weekend with the Pride’s Children (he would not call them the Runaways because he’d tried running away once before and it was different than them, who were really their own family anyway). And of course, there was David. There was always David. 

Today Tommy was being treated to his first concerned look in true stereo, which was quite the experience. On one side was Vision, a new contribution to the small group of experiences, the look on his face perhaps the amalgamation of a hundred thousand concerned looks pulled together from internet resources and pictures. Yet Tommy knew it came from a genuine enough place. He was starting to feel like his soul-father was watching out for him in the past, and if that was true then the distance had been something he’d done to respect Tommy’s needs. A distance repeated now with how Vision was seated in an arm chair across from the couch.    
  
Then there was David, and his concern was familiar. In a way, David was a master of concerned expressions, perhaps because of his glasses and the fact that he had so many variations on them. More the glasses, he thought, because they framed the creases around the corners of David’s eyes, and the yellow tint of his lenses added a honey tone to the softness of his coffee dark eyes. Concern was underlined by the downward curve of his lips, dripping down a line from either corner toward the pinching of his chin. This was a concern Tommy knew well, saw it every time he came home with scrapes and bruises from fights. Then again, he saw it as well when David was trying to cook a new and complicated recipe, or when his classwork was building up and wearing him out. Was it wrong that from David such a look made Tommy feel warm inside? 

Yes, there was a familiar concern on David’s face that, right at this moment, found Tommy swallowing back a relieved noise as he leaned more heavily against his boyfriend, head resting on David’s shoulder. 

“What do you mean by missing time  _ again _ ?” Vision spoke at last. For half of a half of a second Tommy ignored the question because he was tangling his fingers with the ones David had left on his leg. They were good fingers, and distracting. Stupid fingers. 

“Like with the Patrinot,” David observed, squeezing Tommy’s fingers to comfort him. Guy always knew when Tommy needed it, he was magic like that. Or just experienced. “You were there, you ran, and then the next thing you knew…”

“New Year’s Eve,” Tommy confirmed with a quick nod. He didn’t bother to explain more to Vision because, well, even now people who had been adults didn’t hold onto the details. According to David there had been trouble processing the whole situation with that Mother parasite thing, with adults not being able to hear what had even happened. Apparently it continued to this day, and Tommy had enough trouble wrapping his brain about it to buy the point, and not try and explain things to others.

“Was it there this time too?” David asked, his voice low and soft. Great, now the concern was coloring his voice as well, that was never good. Reasonable, sure, but good? Never. Even with all they had been through, even with the Watcher data at hand, no one had ever managed to find out more about the Patrinot, or even searched for more. Almost like everyone was afraid of the creature that had taken him. Like they were afraid that looking for the thing would bring it down on them. Bring it down on David more specifically, a fear that his lover had confessed to him before. 

“Nope. No creepy nightmare fuel,” Tommy assured him, though no guarantee that would be true by later in the night. In the darkness plenty of things came for you. “It was… weird, in a different way. I was just sort of frustrated about something I wouldn’t be able to do until today. And then, well, it  _ was _ today.”

It sounded ridiculous, even to Tommy’s own ears. There was every reason for them not to believe him actually. Losing track of time was one thing. Being kidnapped was another. Standing around being pissed off was something else entirely, and it was what he had to face. At least if someone else had been around he could have claimed some sort of foul play, but that wasn’t happening. Right now his only explanation was pure bullshit going on, that the universe fucking hated him. No, this was worse than bullshit, it was improbable and insane. The former was possible for parts of the family actually. The latter… happened and he didn’t want to play the latest victim of insanity in the universe. Bad things happened when his family went off the deep end, but at least it sometimes made  _ some _ sense. Mostly.

The melancholy thoughts might have overwhelmed him were it not for David. His lover squeezed his hand tightly to comfort him, his head tilting just enough over to the side to rest a little of the weight against Tommy without trapping him in. That was David through and through, he always knew exactly what Tommy needed, it was part of why they worked so well. Perhaps the best part of how they worked. If anyone had ever told him when he was younger that he was going to fall in love with a guy that would get so fully into his head, he would have laughed. And then punched David as a deterrent. Good thing no one had. Granted if they had then this whole relationship may not have happened, because he would have been too sick over the idea of letting someone be in a position to hurt him. And he definitely wouldn’t have been standing there when he had been, which was somehow related to how all this happened. 

“Temporal distortion in the area?” David’s voice hazarded, his words slurring slow in a way that suggested Tommy had inadvertently sped up again. 

“My research of the surrounding locations showed an insufficient spike in any form of energy needed for such a thing, at least on any level previously encountered by the Avengers or X-Men,” Vision answered David, a touch faster. Was that because he’d noticed Tommy having issues, or had Tommy managed to get himself back to balanced?

There was no way to know and so Tommy closed his eyes and focused on their voices alone. Focused on the process that was getting back to normal speeds. Well, normal human speeds. Fuck, he hadn’t had this much trouble outside of a fight in years, not since ‘juvie’. Not since he’d gained more or less mastery of his powers.

“Which, of course, means nothing, Vision. There are always forms we don’t know, things we can’t anticipate, new mutants even.”

“It does allow us to rule out movement involving Kang in any form.”

“Or Cable, I suppose, not that I could see him doing this. Summers may be a lot of things, but prone to practical jokes is definitely not one of them. Not sure he even has a sense of humor. 

“Perhaps we must think on a less technological scale. Nothing has fully suggested it, after all. New mutants, yes, though uncommon they might pose an issue. Beyond that, what do you know of spells that affect time? I understand that you met the acquaintance of Dr. Strange when you were still…”

“Looking for a tactful way to say ‘still a mutant’? Don’t worry, there isn’t one. Yes, there are some spells that can induce a sort of stasis field, but for them to have been strong enough for no one to notice Tommy just standing somewhere  _ and  _ keep him from being noticed by Wanda and Billy when they were actively searching for him? Not very likely. Better chance he was knocked out and taken to another dimension or plane.”

“No, I think not. Searching other dimensions would be child’s play to Wanda, and if she had sought assistance, which I don’t doubt…”

They were talking so slowly now, their voices distorted as if Tommy could only hear them through water, or maybe jello. Concentration wasn’t helping, and his brain was too reactive. David’s fingers drummed against his thigh with the notes of a pop song his lover was caught up in. Except the tempo was all off from Tommy’s point of view, which made the pattern even more frustrating. Vision’s eyes focused, refocused, swirled and refocused again at a refresh rate far exceeding the human sixty times a second. The overhead light hummed its halogen light bulb song, the low sort of frequency most people couldn’t hear but Tommy was put on edge by when his senses were keyed up, making his teeth clench and his temples ache. He could taste the grease from the pizza on his lips and in the air and he could feel the way the hairs on his arms danced in the airflow from the air conditioning system. Already his brain had cataloged the title and author of every book on the low shelf just to the right of his not-dad’s chair, some tucked away for further research as to whether they might merely be decoration or if Vision might genuinely read them. So much information, too much overwhelming his senses, an all  _ and  _ nothing prospect because his brain wasn’t filtering the way it should have. 

It was all too much and still they talked. Talked about him, about his situation, and didn’t talk to him. It was beyond frustrating. It was almost maddening. It was definitely messing his head up in the worst ways. Part of Tommy wanted to just accelerate himself until he was vibrating past the sound barrier, running through it, noises unable to catch up with him. In such a small space, though, he was trapped. 

“Stop it!” he shouted as he burst to his feet. “Talk to me, not over me. Just… just shut up for a  _ minute  _ and let me think!”

He’d expected something, what it was he couldn’t say exactly, in response to his outburst. Could have been Vision sighing or having that same sort of ‘was that really necessary’ look Billy got when he was annoyed with Tommy. Or maybe for David to reach out and touch his hand lightly, offering a wordless bit of comfort mixed with apology like only David ever seemed able to do. At the very least he expected some sort of reaction out of them. What he got instead was stillness. What he got instead was  _ absolute silence _ , a kind he wasn’t used to very often, mostly because he hated the necessary speeds for it in most situations. Silence reminded him of his imprisonment, the hours spent alone with only his own voice for company between bits of time with his jailers. Silence reminded him of the fall of Asgard, when nothing was right and no matter how hard he pushed he was never fast enough. In his nightmares about that he couldn’t hear anything at all, even though he remembered it being noisy as hell. 

Silence reminded him of the warehouse, when the scream couldn’t burst from his lips when he had gazed into those empty eyes behind the domino mask. When he’d gazed into the void and found it hungry for him. Nothingness so deep that the word had basically lost its meaning. 

“Guess that works,” Tommy mumbled under his breath, reassured by his own voice. It didn’t sound as off as it normally did at these speeds, with him relying more on the sound travelling through his own jaw than through the air, but it was a comfort. One that helped nearly as much as his agitated pacing through the room. He did snatch up a slice of pizza, though, and brandished it at his boyfriend and not-father. 

“See, right now I need one massive brain, not two. David, I love you, and I know you had to be worried, but it could have waited a little, right?”

Except that wasn’t right. He knew David well, the guy was a professional worrier. Made sense when he thought about it actually. All David had seen and gone through, all the people that he had lost, Tommy really did get where he was coming from. He also loved that his boyfriend realized how clingy it could make him, and how David always held back because of it. If their positions were reversed, well, Tommy might just have wrapped himself around David and refused to let him go. So yeah, he really did get this. Didn’t make this easier, or take away his need for a good rant. 

Tommy tore a bite off of his slice of pizza and chewed as he paced. Had to say, none of this made sense. If someone present had done it to him, he would have noticed it, because his brain just did that. What others had seen as ADHD growing up had only ever been early onset of his mutation. David had managed to explain it better than the scientists had, of course. Not only did his body run fast, but his brain had to as well, so it was capable of making decisions while he ran at dangerous speeds. Meant that his brain processed too much, stored too much information, and it all happened at speeds that could make another person dizzy. Frequently it did all that without him even noticing. But right now he was unable to do anything but notice. 

“So you two wanna rule out magic, except in a way you can’t. Didn’t Doom and Billy mention it about the three words Mom said? Can’t break another person’s magic spells easily, right? Like, barely at all. Well, reality warpers probably can, especially Billy, because he’s fucking strong, right? So what if I came back because they did break a spell? Watch them poof in here any second to celebrate me being back. Because, you know, we could  _ really  _ use the confusion of additional voices.”

Another bite torn off, only this one more viciously done than the first, as if he could take out all of his fear and aggression on the slice. Maybe he could, not that it was helping right now. What he needed to do, he knew, was to work through his nervous energy and settle back into the conversation. If he tried to slow back down to their levels now, though, he’d just slip again, he could feel it. No doubt Vision would start to notice soon, but that was a whole other scale of time than David would experience. The only real answer to any of it would be to make a high speed nuisance of himself until he could calm down.

In the time it took to think through all of it Tommy had finished his slice of pizza, which meant the next best thing to do was lean down to snatch up another and his soda, plate be damned. At these speeds Tommy was a zero-g hero when he was doing things. When he dropped stuff it dropped at normal rates, gravity and all of that. Which he was moving much faster than. If he wanted to, he could just let go of the pizza and it would slowly fall, with more than enough time for him to come back and collect it well before it hit the floor. Yet another bite of pizza and a sip from the can and then Tommy left the can there in the air. When they were almost at the ground he would have to be back to catch it before it spilled. With that in mind and Tommy’s goal to cause a fuss, he moved to the kitchen, opening cabinets and drawers to start rummaging through. If nothing else he could maybe learn whether Vision actually stayed here. 

Tommy didn’t make it past the first opened cabinet--wine glasses, who would have thought--before a sound shattered the silence he was surrounded by. For Tommy a few things happened all at once. First, his brain processed how impossible it was to hear a noise so clear and crisp at these speeds. Second, it realized that the noise was his soda can hitting the floor. Third, he wondered how he could have been gone so long and achieved so little. Wsa his focus so shot that he hadn’t been able to maintain one speed? Damn, David was going to be annoyed at having been splashed, and he didn’t want to think about how Vision would react to the mess of his floor. 

He rushed back to the living room, ready to apologize, and didn’t know what to do with the scene before him. Yes, the can of soda was on the floor, cherry limeade sprite pooling and fizzing around it. The sounds he had heard could mean nothing else. The two men in the room hadn’t moved so much as a hair. Which was a terrible metaphor of course, given Vision had none and David’s was kept short cropped no matter how often Tommy insisted that natural was very much in style and h could grow it out, Tommy wouldn’t judge him. They were like statues, carved with amazing detail, and utterly still. Not a wince or a sneer or even any overt sign that they had noticed his absence. Which of course meant they hadn’t. Other than the can of soda, nothing at all had changed. 

_ This would be something they’d want to know. To figure it all out, right? Because it’s different. And David would want me to have as much data as possible. Try and figure out if whatever is happening is isolated or not.  _

Which of course would mean testing the change. Not like he lacked materials to work with. His eyes turned once more to the bookshelf and smiled. Never before had he had a chance to make a mess in the name of science. Okay, that wasn’t true, but he was going with the story. Damn, this was going to be fun.

* * *

 

“Stop it!” Tommy shouted, moving as  he spoke, and David frowned as his lover to his feet, his words rushing together in that way they were wont to when he was agitated. “Talk to me, not over me. Just… Just shut up for a  _ minute _ .”

There was a certain sort of suddenness to life that came about only when one was dating a speedster. When Tommy wanted out of a conversation, he was out of it, gone before a protest could be raised. Usually it came with a rush of air, the world itself displaced by his absence, gasping in shock. Yes, he understood it was really about air pressure differentials, but Tommy often inspired something poetic in David, whether the speedster was willing to believe it or not. 

This sort of suddenness was what David had signed up for, and in a way he lived for it as much as he loved to have it happen. Between one second and the next there could be a bouquet of flowers, or takeout from another country, or some other kindness that wasn’t needed but was always appreciated. Sometimes David could see it coming, sometimes not. That sort of strange predictability and spontaneity mix was what made them work, for David at least. He couldn’t predict Tommy from moment to moment, but rather knew the general shapes of him. It was like weather over the course of a year, you knew winter would have snow and summer would have too much heat, but that didn’t mean you knew what would happen from day to day.

Part of him wondered just how Tommy might take being likened to a force of nature. 

Experience told him that this was when Tommy was going to bolt, the stress too much. He’d be back in maybe half an hour, and in that time David and Vision, perhaps even calling upon Billy or Dr. Strange, could try and figure out some explanation for what happened as Tommy had described the situation. They could use the time to think and Tommy always said the best way for him to calm down was a few laps of some desolate area at serious speed. No doubt Tommy would appreciate the distance. 

Instead what happened was something altogether different, and unexpected in a way that made David uncomfortable. 

“Move dammit!”

Tommy’s voice cut through the air again, with a quality that said he’d been talking before those two words. Part of David processed and accepted that Tommy was standing by the window with the curtains thrown back, everything in his posture screaming of fear. There was something on his face that was evocative of that night in the warehouse, the night that had really started things for them, and that made David’s own stomach curl nervously. His brain, though, pushed on as he took in more of the room, namely that his pant leg was soaked, and when he turned his attention to the dampness he found a fallen can of pop at his feet, the fluid not even spreading anymore. That… made no sense at all. If Tommy had dropped the can in the space between his words, wouldn’t the pop still be flowing? 

Out of the corner of his eyes David caught sight of Vision moving, phasing through his chair to approach his soul-son by the window, and with that movement David pushed to his feet. Still he tried to take stock of the room, finding that books that he was certain had been on shelves were now scattered all over the floor, a mess that made no sense at all for Tommy to have made. More than that, the hadn’t just been placed on the floor, so it wasn’t like Tommy had speed-read them. Instead he caught sight of more than a few that were lying open, their pages bent below them. Not a single one was more than two feet away from the shelves, though, meaning they weren’t flung. Dropped them? No, Tommy didn’t affect gravity around him, so with fall rates being constant, it wasn’t possible that he could drop something without David noticing it, right?

“Oh thank fuck,” Tommy hissed and once more David turned his eyes to the man he loved. What he found was Tommy wrapped up in Vision’s arms, not fleeing the clearly comforting gesture. Yet another thing out of the norm. How many times had he seen Tommy dart away before Billy could close for such contact, and yet here he was accepting it from the missing father in his life? “It’s been almost ten minutes. I was actually considering cleaning back up. Then I opened the curtains and…”

An edge of fear to his voice and at last David started to move, joining the pair by the window. While he drew closer Tommy slipped from Vision’s arms, twisting in a blur of color. Before David could so much as catch his breath he was in Tommy’s arms, overwhelmed by the scent of his partner as Tommy buried his face in David’s neck. That was almost more worrying than accepting affection from his father, David decided as his hand came up to stroke lightly over Tommy’s back. This much physical contact for Tommy in so little time? Not usual even on his most affectionate days. Something worse was happening than David could begin to guess at. The worst part was, well, Tommy  _ needed  _ an explanation. And David couldn’t give him one when he didn’t know what was wrong. 

Still his hand followed a gentle pattern, following the same soothing circles he knew always helped in the past. His other hand came up to curl in Tommy’s hair, teasing wind-tangled strands of hair into some semblance of order with practiced ease. 

That Tommy wasn’t stopping this little display with someone potentially watching was yet another bad sign, but David didn’t dare mention it, not when Tommy was taking it all in so readily.

“What happened?” David asked at length, his voice little more than a whisper. Somehow he doubted that would keep Vision from overhearing.

“I don’t know. I… I thought I was going too fast again, been a little keyed up, you know? So I figured since I wasn’t calming down and you two were being brainiacs, I would take a moment. Started doing fast things, stuff I know works when I’m up at real speeds. Started with the can I guess. I just let it go and went to the kitchen, because I knew I’d be back in time to catch it.”

“Were you in there long?” David prompted when Tommy went quiet again, his hand still pressing soothing circles into Tommy’s back. If he could keep Tommy talking he could maybe keep Tommy focused on the here and now. Perhaps even get some answers for all of them. Like how the can had fallen without David noticing.

“No. Fractions of a fraction of a second I think. I don’t even know anymore, David, it’s like my sense of time is messed up,” Tommy admitted, words muffled against his neck. Yet another worrying admission, David had never known anyone with a more accurate internal clock than Tommy had. Well, maybe less clock and more stopwatch, but it was still there. “No time at all, not for you at least. Then I heard it hit the ground. Figured I’d slipped back down by accident. Maybe my mutation was on the fritz or something. Except when I came back in here neither of you were moving. Nothing like that has ever happened before so I started testing. Dropping things. They fell like they were at normal speed, but you still wouldn’t move, and…”

“Excuse me,” Vision cut in at last, like David knew the synthezoid would sooner or later. He could feel Tommy go stiff in his arms, and just hummed a soft, soothing noise in Tommy’s ear. “I should inform you both that my clock does indicate a ten minute discrepency between what I believed it should be and what online systems say is accurate. I did not notice until I recalibrated it upon Thomas’s commentary. The best conclusion I can come to was that it somehow stopped for a time.”

Was that actual concern lacing the synthezoid’s voice? Some, David thought, and that wasn’t something to shake a stick at.

“Yeah, because I looked out through the window,” Tommy said as he finally pulled free after Vision spoke. As he did so he moved right to the window and pointed out through it like it was the culprit. “Things were moving out there, at normal speed. Maybe they always had been. But you two weren’t. I didn’t… What is  _ happening _ to me?”

If only David had answers to give. This was well beyond his wheelhouse of experience, or anything he knew science to explain. At a loss for an explanation David turned his attention to Vision, and he knew Tommy must be turning with him. All of their attention, perhaps even some of their hope, now rested with the ‘older’ Avenger.

“Well, as far as I can see given current data, one of two things may be at play that we have not considered. The first seems less likely, given recent events. However, whatever this is, it seems to be localized upon Thomas. Perhaps even fully centered upon him and anchored to him,” Vision spoke, his gaze moving past them and out through the window. “First, due to frustration and desire over something that was needed but could not be acquired until today, Thomas…”   
  
“Just fucking call me Tommy dammit.”

“Tommy lost time leading up to today. Just now, after specifically telling us to stop for a minute, to his perception we proceed to do just that. At least, that is, until he told us to move.”

Oh.  _ Oh _ . David was getting it now. Perhaps not the first option that Vision had hinted at, but the second one was starting to resolve itself in his mind. At least he had something to offer Tommy now, even if he didn’t like the implication.

“What?” Tommy asked. “Seriously, I swear if you assholes start talking over me again and ignoring that I’m here, I’m going to fucking explode something.”

“Temporal displacement, Tommy. Bent somehow to your will,” David explained with a sigh. This… was definitely unusual. Apparently it was now David’s turn to pace, trying to work through the information available to him right now. This was all so much to try and process, try and turn into useful answers. “Just a bubble of it, though. The reason the can and other things may have fallen is because, by touching them, you brought them out of the area of effect of whatever is going on. In a way you anchored them to you. At least, that’s what I think Vision means, correct?”

The question was met with a brief nod. 

“Then how do you think this happened? You said there was two. What’s the first?” Tommy demanded, and the strain in his voice made David want to reach out for him. He knew something of restraint, though. 

“The Time Stone,” Vision said, and there was something not unlike a shrug given along with the words. “It allows for the direct manipulation of time in either a localized or general area. Minute control such as this is no doubt possible.”

“And you think there is someone who might be using a fucking Infinity Stone on me?”

“As I noted, I find this to be less likely. The Time Stone is not so easily toyed with. Nor do I believe that someone would make use of such power to prank another person. It is possible, but probable? No.”

There weren’t many times in his life that David thought he truly understood the concept of something being so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. The silence that followed Vision’s pronouncement, though, that truly embodied the spirit of the saying. There was no exclamation from Tommy, no laughter, no questions, David could barely even hear breathing, his or his boyfriend’s. Vision wasn’t wrong though, it truly would have been frivolous and stupid to use so powerful an artifact as an Infinity Stone on games like this. Granted the Time Stone had been known to get up to shenanigans seemingly on its own before, but that was another matter altogether. 

“And the other?” Tommy asked, perhaps after he had come to the same conclusion that David had. Give the man credit, he was smart when he wanted to be.

“Well, on that matters David is more qualified to speak than I am. After all, I have minimal personal research into the subject of the mutant condition.”

“Confirmed cases are so rare, and they happen almost exclusively as a reaction to extreme stress or potential physical harm. That doesn’t seem to apply here,” David protested. Because really, he didn’t want this to be happening to Tommy.

Still, David had come to what Vision was getting at in the moment. How likely was such a possibility? Granted, Tommy was in the age range for it, and there  _ had  _ just been a serious fight with a few far too near misses. Perhaps it wasn’t so impossible then, perhaps things had just come to a head later. Not only that, it would make Tommy a very interesting parallel to his twin, wouldn’t it? It would definitely explain how two very different temporal issues would happen to Tommy. 

“Just tell me, please?”

Pulled from his thoughts, David looked up at the plea. And offered a hand out to Tommy. His speedster lover took the hand with no question, and their fingers tangled easily together. When he met Tommy’s eyes he saw that fear again, concern that didn’t belong on that beautiful face. 

“Tommy, you remember what it was like when you first got your speed, right? That adjustment period where you probably had to figure out what was going on with you, trying to learn to control it, all that awkwardness young mutants go through?”

“Mutant puberty? Sucked. I was always hungry and Mary hardly gave fucks because she was feeding me enough for a normal kid,” Tommy agreed, disgust curling a sneer onto his lips. 

Over his shoulder David could see an actual look of something like rage flicker over Vision’s face. Something told him Mary Shepherd was about to experience a world of computer troubles, no matter how petty and delayed the revenge might be. Thing was, Vision didn’t even know the half of what Tommy had gone through under the possession of his biological parents. 

Frankly, David was certain that if Erik or Pietro ever learned the full truth of Tommy’s upbringing, Frank Shepherd would be lucky to even be able to eat through a straw.

“Yeah, like that. So… some mutants go through that twice. There are rare instances of secondary mutations manifesting if the situation is right. Tommy, Vision is suggesting there is a chance that you’re going through this yourself.”

A wave of emotions flashed across Tommy’s face at that. Denial, fear, shame for some reason. All were reasons someone might run from the situation, and for Tommy it was no doubt worse, his mind clearly running a mile a minute. How hard could it be to hear that you had to go through all that confusion again? David had known mutants it had hit hard, had seen how hard it had messed with Bobby’s life at times, knew what it had done to Quentin. They had adjusted in time of course, some could even say someone like Emaa was better off than she had been to start with. But Tommy? Losing time carried so much more weight for him. The disconnect between how he and everyone else experienced time was already bad enough. That was where the fear fame in, no doubt. But the shame? Even David couldn’t pin that one down, and he had multiple psychology degrees bouncing around in his head. 

“So, what, I’m now accelerating beyond my own control because I mutated again? Became more of a freak?”

The word made David flinch, even if he got where it was coming from. The formative years for a mutant in a house of fearful bigots. Of course that was shaping Tommy’s response now. It didn’t matter that his boyfriend had been a mutant once. Didn’t matter that his soul-father had married one. No, Tommy was buried in old traumas. Something David should have the chance to talk him through slowly, as comfortingly as possible. If only he could be lucky enough to find the time. 

“You aren’t a freak. This is merely a natural progression of your powers, Tommy, and-” Vision started, only to be cut off by Tommy.

“No, shut up. Give me a-”

While Tommy had used words to cut Vision off, David was a bit more forceful in his shock. His hand clamped down over his boyfriend's mouth. Perhaps with a bit too much force too, given how Tommy was three feet away a second later. Dammit, new issue, because he’d never hurt Tommy before in his life, and that was going to blow back on him. That, though, could wait. 

“What the fucking hell, David?” Tommy snapped. 

Okay, maybe not wait.

“You said we froze when you asked for a minute. We moved again when you demanded that we should. Emotions behind both of those, Tommy. But words too. Come on Tommy, think about it. How did Billy alter reality when he was just learning?”

“He just said what he… Oh. Oh  _ fuck _ . David, I don’t  _ think  _ before I speak.”

A lie and they both knew it. Nothing stopped Tommy from thinking, constantly. He could choose words carefully when he wanted to, he just didn’t often want to. Which was more true when it was anyone but David around. 

“Altering reality with words, and now perhaps you can do the same with time,” Vision spoke into the following silence. “It seems the universe at some level has a greater plan for you boys.”

“You don’t even know the half of it,” Tommy grumbled under his breath, and David really understood where his boyfriend was coming from. 

Most people didn’t know even a quarter of it. Those that knew of the Demiurge fate that was in Billy’s future weren’t exactly spreading it around. To let it be known posed too much of a risk for Billy and those he loved. There could always be another Loki or Moridun waiting in the wings, aching to get their hands on Billy’s powers, Billy’s fate. One day the time would come for the Demiurge to rise, for him to be known. That, though, was neither here, nor now, and that meant it wasn’t time to explain what Tommy was talking about either. 

“We cannot yet be certain,” Vision reminded them both. “This theory must be something we consider very carefully, from many angles. Perhaps even test the hypothesis, though under controlled circumstances with very small increments of time. I think Dr. McCoy might be useful for assisting in this. He has familiarity with both the proposed hypothesis and with time travel. No dobe he could devise a suitable experiment to-”

It was the exact wrong word with emotions running far too high. In a way, David saw it coming, almost like it was in slow motion. Tommy was too far away for him to stop, but that didn’t mean he didn’t try. David’s outstretched fingers closed around Tommy’s wrist as he lunged for his boyfriend. The contact came at exactly the wrong, or perhaps right, moment. 

“Experiment? Fuck that. Won’t see me submitting to that. Not in a million years!”

There was a suddennes to life that came about only when one was dating a speedster. And it was nothing, David realized, compared to what came with dating a fledgling  _ time-warper _ . Because after a moment of pain and dizziness he stumbled away from Tommy, emptying his stomach all over the dirt before hom. Rocks bit into the palms of his hands as his braced himself against the ground, and the air beyond the sour tang of sick smelled like charred stone as wind whipped mercilessly around him. 

“David!” Tommy’s voice was loud, too loud, and Tommy’s hand rubbing at his back was too rough. 

His whole body felt too sensitive, David realized, one giant and utterly exposed nerve. Had to be that, because he’d never known Tommy to be this rough with him without David specifically asking for it. That hand was probably only pressing lightly against him, in what was supposed to be a soothing gesture, it was something wrong with David that made it feel worse.

“We’re not in Kansas anymore,” David mumbled as he rocked back onto his heels, wiping his mouth with a corner of his shirt. “Tommy, what did I  _ just  _ say?”

“We’re not in Kansas anymore?”

An attempt at a joke and David? He was really not a fan at the moment of jokes. It was easier to just ignore it and push to his feet so he could look around. New York City was gone. Instead he found himself the rotting ruins of a twisted steel and concrete wasteland. This was a city long since abandoned. A time long since forsaken. David shuddered to even take it all in, and what it might mean for the future. 

“What happened?” Tommy asked next, a bit of fear coloring his voice, like he knew what had happened but didn’t want it confirmed.

“Ballpark estimate? A million years.”


End file.
